I’m a bit late with this post after a heavy night to ring in the new year.

After preparing all day (shopping, cooking, cleaning) for a small party for my teenagers, I slinked off to my bedroom and read Divergent until 11 pm, then fell asleep, then woke up in time to share a tepid toast of sparkling grape juice with everyone before staggering back to bed in stupor of exhaustion. I’m the life of the party!

But despite my lackluster showing this year when it comes to hard partying, I still will give a stab at those new yearly resolutions. For my writing career, I want to write better and more. And maybe take a grammar class on the side.

To help me, I’ve thinned my stacks of writing books down to a few favs. Maybe they’ll boost your writing goals, too.

This book helps me settle on my characters and get clues to how they interact. Think of this book as the wooden, articulated form for sculptors. It’s a basic form to pad and flesh out and make as individual as you like!

Once I have my hero and heroine (and sub-characters) nailed down, I need to figure out what’s important to them. I turn to my well-worn copy of Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon.

I had the fortune to attend one of her classes and it was fantastic. The book is just as good. She helps the author save so much time plotting by forcing the gist of the characters’ goals, motivations and conflicts. What do they want, why do they want it, and what’s going to stop them? I could not recommend this book more.

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About bellastreet

Living so close to Nashville has provoked Bella to take up fiddle lessons. Until her tunes no longer sound like amorous alley cats, she writes romance with a touch of weird.
Visit her at www.bellastreetwrites.blogspot.com

Bella, my goals are exactly the same – I imagine the entire Main Street crew feels this way :). I recently purchased Revisions and Self Editing For Publication upon the recommendation of a writing class.

GOALS: Write daily…keep track of how much and how efficiently I’m writing, again daily record-keeping. I want to read more this year as well, so I’ve pleaded to read every day and not just for research :). I mapped out my year, given a stab at spread-sheets, for what I need to accomplish and what I’d like to accomplish as far as writing projects. I’ve also decided to take at least one class on something totally new…I don’t know where that’ll lead, hopefully somewhere wonderful.

Great post. Wonderful reference books (I use them all). Here’s to writing better and producing more really great finished products!

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